Overview
What Is In This Guide
The 3 ways a connector gets into ChatGPT, and why half of people get stuck on step one
The one setting you flip once (Developer mode) so custom connectors show up at all
All 6 connectors: what each one does, the exact setup, and my tips for actually using it
The full comment-to-DM prompt for Blotato, given away in full
One prompt that runs 5 of them back to back on a real job, so you see the whole machine
The 7 things that quietly break these, none of which are in the setup docs
Section 1
Read This Before You Connect Anything
A connector is just a door. It lets ChatGPT go touch something outside the chat window, instead of guessing at it from memory.
Here's what trips people up. There are three different kinds of connector, and they don't install the same way. Once you know which kind you're dealing with, none of these take more than two minutes.
Official plugin
Higgsfield and Firecrawl
Already listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory. You click install, sign in to the tool, done. No settings to change, nothing to paste.
Custom connector
Wispr Flow, Composio, Blotato
Lives on the internet as a URL. You paste the URL into ChatGPT and sign in once. This is the kind that needs Developer mode switched on first.
Local
Paper
Runs on your own computer, inside the Paper app. ChatGPT in a browser cannot reach your computer, so this one goes through a desktop app instead. More on that in Connector 6.
The one setting you flip first
Custom connectors are hidden until you turn on Developer mode. It sounds scary. It's one toggle, and it doesn't make you a developer. You need a paid ChatGPT plan for this.
ChatGPT on the web
Click your name in the bottom-left corner, then Settings.
Open Security and login, scroll down, and turn on Developer mode.
Now in Plugins → Browse Plugins there's a + icon next to the search bar. That's where every custom connector gets added.
ChatGPT Work desktop app
No toggle needed. Go to Settings → Plugins → MCP → Add server and pick Streamable HTTP as the type. The URLs and sign-in are exactly the same as on the web.
Connector 1 · Official plugin
Higgsfield
This gives ChatGPT access to basically every AI image and video model out there, from one chat window.
ChatGPT's own image model is really good. But it is one model. Higgsfield lets ChatGPT reach for Seedance, Kling, Nano Banana, and the rest, and pick the right one for the job instead of forcing everything through a single model.
Setup
Open ChatGPT, click Plugins in the sidebar, and search Higgsfield. Or go to higgsfield.ai/mcp and click Add Higgsfield plugin.
Click Install, then sign in to your Higgsfield account when it asks.
That's it. No API key, no Developer mode.
My tips
Name the model. "Make a video" gets you whatever ChatGPT feels like. "Use Seedance 2.0" or "use GPT Image 2 because there is text in it" gets you the right tool.
Generations cost Higgsfield credits, not ChatGPT usage. Check your credit balance before you ask for 20 videos in one go.
Video takes a minute. If ChatGPT says it started a job and goes quiet, just ask "check the status of that Higgsfield job."
Say one of these the second it connects
Use Higgsfield to make 3 versions of a product photo for my candle on a kitchen counter, morning light. Use a different model for each and tell me which is best.
Use Higgsfield to turn this image into a 5-second video where the camera slowly pushes in.
Which Higgsfield model should I use for a talking-head style ad, and why?
Connector 2 · Custom connector
Wispr Flow
Wispr Flow is the best voice-to-text tool I have used. What most people missed is that it now has a notetaker built in.
It records your meetings right on your computer (no bot joining the call), writes the transcript with names on every speaker, and summarizes it. Plug it into ChatGPT and ChatGPT can read every one of those meetings. No more downloading a transcript and pasting it into a chat.
Setup
Make sure you have Wispr Flow's Notetaker on your account (Mac or Windows) and at least one meeting recorded.
Open Wispr Flow Settings and click MCP in the sidebar, right under Connectors.
Click Add to ChatGPT. It opens in your browser.
Sign in with your Wispr Flow account to approve it. There is no key or token to paste.
My tips
It's read-only. ChatGPT can read your meetings, notes, and calendar events, but it cannot edit or delete anything. Your regular dictations are never shared.
The best use is the follow-up email. "Pull my call with Sarah this morning and draft the follow-up" is 10 minutes of work gone.
Ask for the stuff you forgot. "What did I promise people in meetings this week?" is the question that pays for the whole setup.
Say one of these the second it connects
Use Wispr Flow to find my last meeting and list every question they asked me, in their words.
Use Wispr Flow to pull every action item I agreed to this week, grouped by person.
Use Wispr Flow to summarize my last 3 calls with the same client and tell me what changed between them.
Connector 3 · Official plugin
Firecrawl
This lets ChatGPT read any website on the internet. Not a summary of it. The actual page.
It scrapes full pages, pulls clean data into tables, crawls whole sites, and researches your competitors, without you copying and pasting a thing. It is the tool I use every time I need real data off a website.
Setup
Open ChatGPT, go to Plugins, and search Firecrawl. Or use the direct link: Firecrawl in ChatGPT.
Click Install, then connect your Firecrawl account when it asks. The free account is enough to start.
My tips
Type @firecrawl at the start of the message when you want it for sure. ChatGPT has its own web search and will use that instead if you don't point it at Firecrawl.
Ask for a table. "Pull every plan name and price into a table" gets you something you can actually use, not a paragraph.
Use the monitor feature on competitor pricing pages. Firecrawl watches the page and tells you when it changes, so you find out before your customers do.
Say one of these the second it connects
@firecrawl Scrape my top 3 competitors' pricing pages and put every plan, price, and limit in one table.
@firecrawl Crawl my website and list every page that has a broken link or missing title.
@firecrawl Search the web for what changed in my industry this week and give me the actual sources.
Connector 4 · Custom connector
Composio
This is one connector that plugs ChatGPT into basically every app you already use. Gmail, Slack, Notion, Stripe, Google Calendar, HubSpot, you name it.
Instead of setting up every app one by one, you connect Composio once and add apps behind it whenever you want. I run Stripe, Notion, Gmail, Slack, and a dozen more through it.
Setup
Make a free account at composio.dev.
Turn on Developer mode in ChatGPT (the one-time setting above).
In ChatGPT, go to Plugins, click Browse Plugins, then the + icon next to the search bar. On the ChatGPT Work desktop app it's Settings → Plugins → MCP → Add server.
Name it Composio, URL https://connect.composio.dev/mcp, authentication OAuth (on desktop, type Streamable HTTP).
Sign in to Composio and click Allow access.
My tips
Connecting Composio does not connect your apps. The first time you ask for Gmail, it sends you a sign-in link for Gmail. Do that once per app and it sticks.
Name the app and the action. "Search Gmail for the latest thread with Acme" works. "Check on Acme" makes ChatGPT guess.
Say "draft" when you mean draft. Send and create-a-draft are one word apart in a prompt and very different in real life. Start every new app with a read-only ask.
Say one of these the second it connects
Use Composio to find my unread Gmail from today and sort it into urgent, needs a reply, and can wait. Do not send or change anything.
Use Composio to pull this month's Stripe revenue and compare it to last month.
Use Composio to turn the notes on my Notion page called "Ideas" into a to-do list, then show me before you change anything.
Connector 5 · Custom connector
Blotato
This connects ChatGPT to your social media accounts. Posting, scheduling, analytics, all from the chat.
The reason it made this list: they just dropped comment-to-DM automations. You tell ChatGPT "when someone comments this word, DM them this link," and it builds the whole thing. The trigger, the follow gate, the message, the button. If you got this guide by commenting on my post, a flow like this is what sent it to you.
Setup
In Blotato, connect the social accounts you want ChatGPT to reach. Stay logged in to Blotato in this browser.
With Developer mode on, go to Plugins → Browse Plugins → + (desktop: Settings → Plugins → MCP → Add server).
Name it Blotato, URL https://mcp.blotato.com/mcp, authentication OAuth.
Approve access in the window that opens. Then ask "Use Blotato to list my connected accounts." If your accounts come back, you're done.
My tips
Connect your social accounts inside Blotato first. Skip it and ChatGPT connects fine, then tells you that you have zero accounts. Nothing is broken, the workspace is just empty.
Be logged into Blotato in the same browser before you connect. The approval screen needs a live Blotato session or it never finishes.
Comment-to-DM works on Instagram and Facebook. Posting and scheduling work on 9 platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, and X.
Heads up on the free trial: the trial covers the Blotato app, not the connector. Connecting ChatGPT counts as API use, so plan on the paid plan for this part.
Blotato is the tool I use for this. If you sign up through my link, code ZACH30 takes 30% off for 3 months.
Say one of these the second it connects
Use Blotato to list my connected accounts.
Use Blotato to show me my 5 best posts from the last 30 days and what they have in common.
Use Blotato to schedule this caption to Instagram and LinkedIn for tomorrow at 9am. Show me before you schedule it.
Now build the comment-to-DM flow
Fill in the four values at the top, paste it into ChatGPT the second your post goes live, and it handles the rest. It checks which account it's attaching to, shows you the exact flow before it builds anything, and waits for you to say go.
Copy-paste prompt
Set up a comment-to-DM automation on my Instagram using Blotato. FILL THESE IN BEFORE YOU PASTE: - KEYWORD: [one word, all caps, the word you tell people to comment] Example: GUIDE - LINK: [the URL you're sending them to] Example: https://yoursite.com/free-guide - THE FREE THING: [what you're sending, in one short phrase] Example: the 10-minute cold email teardown - WHICH POST: [the reel I just published, or: every post] BUILD IT LIKE THIS: - Name: "KEYWORD - comment to DM" - Trigger: comment-received, keyword KEYWORD - Follow gate: ON. Message: "Yes! Follow me first and I'll send it straight over. Tap the button below once you're following (or just reply "done" if you don't see a button)." - Follow gate button label: "I'm following" - DM message: "Here it is, THE FREE THING. Tap below and it's yours." - One link button: label "Send it over", URL = LINK - Make it live immediately BEFORE YOU CREATE IT: 1. Call blotato_list_accounts and tell me which Instagram account you're about to attach this to. 2. Show me the exact automation you're about to create: name, trigger, keyword, follow gate message, button label, DM text, link button, and whether it's active. 3. Wait for me to say go. Do not create it before I confirm. AFTER YOU CREATE IT: 4. Confirm it's active and give me the automation ID. 5. Remind me that my own comments will never trigger it, so I have to test from a second Instagram account. RULES YOU MUST FOLLOW: - The DM message has to be under 640 characters. - Max 3 link buttons, and every button label has to be 20 characters or fewer. - Use a link button OR a plain-text URL in the message, never both. If a message carries both, the URL stops being clickable on desktop and those readers end up with no working link at all. - The follow gate is Instagram only. If I ever ask you to put one on Facebook, tell me it will be rejected. - If my keyword is a word that lives inside a longer word people actually type, warn me before you build it.
What I filled in for this exact guide
Connector 6 · Local
Paper
Paper is a design tool I just started using, and it's super powerful. When you connect it to AI, the AI designs websites and graphics right on a real canvas, and you can click in and edit anything it makes. No more "change the blue a little" back and forth in a chat. You just grab it and fix it.
Here's the honest part most people skip. Paper runs on your computer, inside the Paper desktop app. ChatGPT in a browser lives on OpenAI's servers, so it can't reach your computer. The way to use Paper with your ChatGPT account is Codex, OpenAI's desktop app, which comes with your ChatGPT plan and is the route Paper officially supports. If you use Claude, it works there too.
Setup with Codex (your ChatGPT plan)
Download Paper Desktop, open it, and open any file. Opening a file is what turns the connection on.
Download the Codex app and sign in with your ChatGPT account.
In Codex, go to Settings → MCP Servers and add a custom server.
Pick the Streamable HTTP tab. Name paper, URL http://127.0.0.1:29979/mcp. Click Save.
That address looks weird on purpose. 127.0.0.1 means "this computer." It's Codex talking to the Paper app sitting right next to it.
Using Claude Code instead? One line
My tips
The Paper app has to be open with a file open. The connection only exists while it is running, so if Codex says it cannot find Paper, open the app first.
Test it with "create a red rectangle in Paper." If a red rectangle shows up on your canvas, you're connected.
Fonts have to be installed on your computer. Paper reads your system fonts and Google Fonts, so if a design comes out in the wrong font, install the font and restart Paper.
If things start erroring after a long session, start a fresh chat. That fixes most of it.
Say one of these once it's connected
Design a 1080x1350 Instagram graphic in Paper that says "3 things I learned this week." Clean, lots of white space.
Look at the frame I have selected in Paper and make 3 color variations of it next to the original.
Build a simple landing page hero in Paper for my business, then give me the code for it.
The Payoff
One Prompt That Runs 5 Of Them Together
One connector is useful. Five working together is a different thing entirely. This prompt takes your last sales or client call and turns it into a follow-up email, a competitor snapshot, and a ready-to-go social post, using Wispr Flow, Firecrawl, Composio, Higgsfield, and Blotato in order.
It stops at every step so you can check the work, and it never sends or posts anything without your OK. Fill in the four lines at the top and paste it into ChatGPT.
Copy-paste prompt
I just connected Wispr Flow, Firecrawl, Composio, Higgsfield, and Blotato to you. I want to run one real job that uses all five, start to finish, so I can see what this setup actually does. THE JOB: turn my most recent sales or client call into a follow-up email, a competitor snapshot, and one social post. FILL THIS IN BEFORE YOU PASTE: - MY BUSINESS IN ONE LINE: [what you sell and who to] Example: I run a bookkeeping firm for restaurants in Chicago - ONE COMPETITOR URL: [a competitor's homepage or pricing page] Example: https://competitor.com/pricing - WHERE MY TEAM TALKS: [Slack channel, Notion page, or "skip"] Example: #sales in Slack - WHICH SOCIAL ACCOUNT: [the account you want the post drafted for] Example: my Instagram DO IT IN THIS ORDER. STOP AT EVERY CHECKPOINT AND WAIT FOR ME. STEP 1. WISPR FLOW Use Wispr Flow to find my most recent Notetaker meeting with someone outside my company. Tell me who it was with and when. Then pull out: - every question they asked - every objection or hesitation, in their exact words - every promise I made them CHECKPOINT: show me this list and ask if you picked the right meeting. STEP 2. FIRECRAWL Use Firecrawl to scrape the competitor URL above. Pull their pricing, their main promise, and the 3 claims they lean on hardest. Then compare it to the objections from Step 1 and tell me which objection the competitor is winning on, in one sentence. CHECKPOINT: show me the comparison. STEP 3. COMPOSIO (GMAIL) Use Composio to write a follow-up email in Gmail to the person from the meeting. Rules: - Under 150 words - Answer their biggest objection directly, using what you learned in Step 2 - Deliver every promise I made in the meeting, or tell me which ones you cannot deliver - Sound like a person, not a sales template. No "I hope this email finds you well." Save it as a DRAFT. Do not send it. If I gave you a team channel above, also post a 3-line summary of the call there, but show me the text first and wait for my OK. CHECKPOINT: give me the draft and tell me where it is saved. STEP 4. HIGGSFIELD Take the objection from Step 1 that most of my buyers probably share. Use Higgsfield to generate one 4:5 image for a social post that speaks to it. Plain, real-looking scene, no text baked into the image. Tell me which model you used and why. CHECKPOINT: show me the image before you move on. STEP 5. BLOTATO Use Blotato to list my connected accounts and confirm the one I named. Write a caption that answers that objection in plain language, under 120 words, one clear takeaway, no hashtag pile. Attach the Higgsfield image. Create it as a DRAFT or schedule it for tomorrow at 9am my time. Do not publish it right now. CHECKPOINT: show me the caption, the account, and the time before you create anything. WHEN YOU ARE DONE: Give me a 5-line recap: the meeting, the objection, the email draft location, the post status, and one thing you would do differently next time. RULES FOR THE WHOLE RUN: - Say the tool name out loud before you use it, so I can see which connector you are calling. - If a tool fails or is not connected, stop and tell me exactly which one and what the error said. Do not fake the step. - Never send, publish, or post anything without my explicit OK.
The Order
All 6 In About 10 Minutes
Do them in this order and none of the steps block each other.
Install the two easy ones first: Higgsfield and Firecrawl from the Plugins directory. No settings, 1 minute each.
Flip on Developer mode once. Settings, then Security and login.
Wispr Flow: click Add to ChatGPT from inside Wispr's settings and sign in.
Composio and Blotato: paste each URL, pick OAuth, sign in. Log into Blotato in the same browser first.
Paper last, in the Codex app, because it's the only one that needs an app open on your computer.
Test each one with a single read-only sentence. Then paste the stack prompt below and watch them work together.
Troubleshooting
The 7 Things That Quietly Break These
None of these are in the setup docs. Every one of them costs people time.
ChatGPT will not use a connector unless you point at it
With six connected, ChatGPT will sometimes answer from memory or use its own web search instead. Say the name in the prompt. "Use Firecrawl to scrape" beats "look at this site." This one fix solves most of the "it's not working" messages I get.
You don't see the + button to add a connector
Two reasons. Developer mode is off, or you're on the free plan. Custom connectors need a paid plan. The official plugins (Higgsfield and Firecrawl) do not need Developer mode at all.
Old tutorials send you to the wrong menu
OpenAI moved Connectors into Plugins in July 2026. If a video tells you to look under Settings → Connectors, the steps are still right, the button just lives under Plugins now.
It works on your laptop and not on your phone
Custom connectors are set up on the web (or the ChatGPT Work desktop app). Don't try to add them from the mobile app. Set them up on a computer first.
It reads fine but won't post, send, or create anything
OpenAI has changed which plans get "write" actions (posting, sending, creating) more than once. If reading works and writing gets refused, it's your plan or a confirmation waiting for you, not a broken connector. Always test with a read-only ask first so you know which one it is.
Custom connectors ask for sign-in, not an API key
ChatGPT connects with OAuth (a normal sign-in window). If a tool's docs tell you to paste an API key into a header, that's the setup for Claude Code or Cursor. In ChatGPT, pick OAuth and sign in.
Your own comments never trigger your DM automation
You'll test the Blotato comment-to-DM flow on your own post, see nothing happen, and assume it's broken. It ignores comments from the account that owns it. Test from a second Instagram account.
Connect them, then point at them by name. That's the whole trick.
Setup steps reflect ChatGPT's menus as of September 2026. OpenAI moves things around, so if a button has a new name, the steps still work the same way.